Questions for anyone on dev team or beta team (merged)

[NefariousKoel]

It's still working okay Neal. I think.

I'd rather spend money on upgrading rather than replacing if it comes to that, however. Replacing my teeth grinding at the shrill sound, anyway.

Save me SH4!

[IRONxMortlock]

I'm glad to see this thread back open.

I'd be interested in the answer to the original questions as by themselves they seem to paint a rather damning picture of the game. Particularly question 1.!
________
Hotstuffmmm

[gronbek]

Originally Posted by jeff lackey

The review disc that was shipped did not come with a manual, either hard copy or pdf form. I played the heck out of SH3, but want to be fair in this review, so I have a couple of questions for anyone with a legit copy of the game and a manual (beta team, dev, people from Sweden, etc.) until I can convince the project lead to send me a pdf manual.

1. Helming the porpoise, when I go to the sonar I can't see how to operate it. No obvious way to direct the listening in a certain direction, and no visual cues that I can see. Also, so far on my first career cruise I haven't picked up a single sound contact of any kind, even though I've come so close to a ship or convoy I can see them with the bare eye.

2. Radar - I added a radar to my sub before leaving port, and I get numerous radar contacts, but when I go to either of the two radar stations there is no way to turn them on. ??

3. On the attack nav screen, on the pull down that has the zoom in and out tabd there is a third tab that says something, can't recall (not on that computer now) but it has a question mark in the pull down tab and it doesn't seem to do anything.

4. Crew management - not the same as SH3, but without the manual it's difficult to figure out how to have it handled automatically, how well it is working, how to manually move people to rest, etc.

Quite a few other questions, but hopefully I'll get a manual from the team tomorrow - but any help from anyone here would be appreciated as I get back into the game tonight.

Thanks - Jeff

Hi
I got a legit copy of the game from store yesterday. Tonight after work I will try and research your questions.
BR Anders

[jeff lackey]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Halt! Who goes there?

LOL! You know, that's an odd search result - mainly older articles, and then just a few (I probably get about 20 articles a year out the door.)

Got your PM, I'll reply later today when I know my schedule better - thanks!

[jeff lackey]

Originally Posted by IRONxMortlock

I'm glad to see this thread back open.

I'd be interested in the answer to the original questions as by themselves they seem to paint a rather damning picture of the game. Particularly question 1.!

Well, be very careful to draw any conclusions yet - I've JUST started playing, and without the manual I'm very likely just not understanding how to operate some of the functions that are very different on the U.S. subs. When people get their copies, with the manuals, we can see what's what.

[jeff lackey]

OK, so now I KNOW I need the manual! I must be doing something completely wrong.

While the intro says that if you're based at Pearl, you'll be patrolling that general area (Midway, Wake, etc.) But my first mission is to go all the way to Honshu and patrol there. OK, in my Porpoise I barely have the fuel to get there and back, but OK. But for the entire patrol, I didn't get a single sound contact from my sonar. Even when I'd get close to a ship I saw visually, I'd go down and slow, no contacts. I did get radar contacts, even though my sub has no surface radar on it (and I'm using realistic sensors.)

So - this is how I know I'm just doing something wrong, and need to get the manual to figure out what stupid thing I'm doing/not doing: I submerge in Pearl Harbor, surrounded by ships. Still - no sound contacts. So if someone has the manual, while I wait for the dev team to ship me one for my review, could you please tell me what stupid thing I'm doing wrong? There isn't much need in my continuing to play for the review until I have something this basic figured out.

Really, for those worried about "This idiot is going to review this for a major magazine" - I'm normally not this dense! LOL! and I am a HARDCORE simmer from way back. Which is why I know this has to be my error and not the program.

[akdavis]

Could it be that you don't have a crew member stationed at the sonar? I would play around with the crew management screen some.

[jeff lackey]

Originally Posted by akdavis

Could it be that you don't have a crew member stationed at the sonar? I would play around with the crew management screen some.

Thats what I thought, but there are crew members in ever slot in the crew screen. I don't see a specific "sonar" seat.

[gronbek]

Here is the section about radar and sonar. A bit lacking...cant see details and writing in pictures.

[jeff lackey]

Thanks - as others have mentioned, the directional handles don't work. I finally got it to work when I dove deeper, even though once I came back up to periscope depth it continued to work (I.e., I needed to go to about 25 feet - oops, meters - and then the contacts showed up that did not show up at 15 meters, but once I came back up to 15 meters it continued to come back.) Still having some issues with getting ranges to a contact (unless I go up and see the ship visually, I only get a "no target selected" when I try to get a range on a sonar contact, i.e. no way to say "get a range on the contact you are reporting." but I'll work it out.

Thanks

[Onkel Neal]

Try rotating the sonar head with the home/end keys, Jeff. Let me know if that works for you.

[akdavis]

Originally Posted by jeff lackey

Thanks - as others have mentioned, the directional handles don't work. I finally got it to work when I dove deeper, even though once I came back up to periscope depth it continued to work (I.e., I needed to go to about 25 feet - oops, meters - and then the contacts showed up that did not show up at 15 meters, but once I came back up to 15 meters it continued to come back.) Still having some issues with getting ranges to a contact (unless I go up and see the ship visually, I only get a "no target selected" when I try to get a range on a sonar contact, i.e. no way to say "get a range on the contact you are reporting." but I'll work it out.

Thanks

Jeff, passive sonar cannot range to target. You are simply listening to the sound of your target travelling through the water and determining the direction in relation to your listening device (i.e. bearing). The most you can do is listen yourself and estimate, or trust the crew's estimates (i.e. "short, medium, long range").

[jeff lackey]

Originally Posted by akdavis

Jeff, passive sonar cannot range to target. You are simply listening to the sound of your target travelling through the water and determining the direction in relation to your listening device (i.e. bearing). The most you can do is listen yourself and estimate, or trust the crew's estimates (i.e. "short, medium, long range").

Oh, sure, I understand. But I'm pushing the button which is supposed to be the active ping for range, and it simply says "no target selected." My assumption, based on what I think I know of WWII sub technology, is that if the crew has picked up a contact and has a bearing, they can do an active ping to get the range, and in fact, if I visually acquire the target that has been acquired by the sonar man he will then give me a ping/range. But he should be able to do that while we are below periscope depth, right?

[Yak]

The sonar definately worked on the Late beta copy I played this afternoon, I know because it works amazingly similar to SH1, and I kept getting readings on ships I had no interest in killing, and it stopped my time compression, and i'd surface and blast them with the deckie...